Did You Know?

Mayor Tom Kane: She didn't die. Chicago PD found her. Did she know what the files were? The ones you leaked to Miller? Ezra Stone: No. Mayor Tom Kane: Why did you do it? Ezra Stone: Because it was no longer tenable. I could no longer abide by the ideas keeping you, keeping us, here in this position. Mayor Tom Kane: Why? Ezra Stone: Because it became clear that you were no longer ruling for the good of the city. I've done, we have done, too many terrible things in the course of running matters but I've always known why. It was always in the end because it mattered that we ran the city. Because we were best equipped to provide that which was good for its people. And if elements got in our way, elements that needed to be torn down, I could justify even the most ruthless of measures in how we dealt with them because I knew we were preserving what was good for the city by preserving this. If I could justify the end to myself, my conscience, I could pursue it by any means. Mayor Tom Kane: What changed? Ezra Stone: You. You got sick. You're judgements wavering, your decisions no longer justifiable. You began to act out of a sense of pure personal preservation. Stay in place at any cost. I could no longer see the end justifying our means because the only end that matters to you now is you. Your personal survival. I can't abide by that. I can't do what I need to do for you to stay where you are. Mayor Tom Kane: When did you decide this? Ezra Stone: Your handling of Cullen. Your denial of his quest for another term was a bad decision. Was personal, emotional, disproportionate. Mayor Tom Kane: Why didn't you come to me? Ezra Stone: I tried. You shut it down. It was at that point that I realized that you were no longer in control. I leaked the O'Hare dump documents and watched you prove with every turn you took in handling the fallout that sadly, I was right. Your handling of the sick kids at Bensonville. Your smearing of Dr. Reyes. Your use of your daughter. Was I not right to think that you would stop at nothing to spare yourself above everything and everyone else? Mayor Tom Kane: Why not resign? Why try to take me out of the picture instead of yourself? Ezra Stone: Because men like you never leave. The system isn't designed to cleanse itself of a Tom Kane. You stay and hold on to power beyond when you should and inso doing bring corruption to everything while you remain. You need to be pushed. I did the pushing. Mayor Tom Kane: I'm dying. Ezra Stone: I know. Question is: Given where you sit, does that make you more dangerous or less? Mayor Tom Kane: What now? For thirty years you've advised me on the appropriate course of action in the worst of situations. What would you advise I do now given I know what you've done? Ezra Stone: You don't have a choice. Punishment should always be commensurate to the crime. It should be proportionate and visible. A punishment is not only an act of retribution, it's also a signal. It needs to be seen and understood by anyone else who might have flirted with the notion of committing the same transgression... And it's a signal that no one is exempt from the consequences of betrayal.